Sandplay Certification Requirements

If you are interested in working with me towards your Sandplay Practitioner (SP), Certified Sandplay Therapist Member (CST), or Certified Sandplay Teaching Member (CST-T) certification, below is a list of certification requirements.

Brief Guide: There are three levels of Sandplay certification/practice as a Sandplay Therapist in the US through the Sandplay Therapists of America (STA) organization.

Sandplay Practitioner

  • Choose an STA member who has been a member of STA/ISST for at least two years prior to selection as an Advisor, and check in with the Advisor at least once every six months to review the process towards practitioner membership.;
  • Complete a Sandplay process with a CST or CST-T member of STA with a minimum of 40 sessions (not necessarily trays themselves);
  • Complete 36 hours of training with a Certified Sandplay Therapist–Teacher (CST-T), of which 18 hours must include the “Introduction to Sandplay Therapy” training held through STA; and
  • Complete 25 group consultation hours; or 15 individual consultation hours; or a combination of group and individual consultation hours for 20 hours in total with a minimum of two CST-T members.

Certified Sandplay Therapist

  • Choose an STA member who has been a member of STA/ISST for at least two years prior to selection as an Advisor, and check in with the Advisor at least once every six months to review the process towards certified membership;
  • Complete a Sandplay process with a CST or CST-T member of STA with a minimum of 40 sessions (not necessarily trays themselves);
  • Complete 120 hours of training with CST-T members;
  • Complete 80 hours of consultation with a minimum of two CST-T members, of which there are 50 hours maximum of group consultation and 30 hours of individual consultation hours. The 50 hours are counted towards candidacy, provided the therapist presents their own sandplay case material on at least 10 occasions within the group consultation hours.If there are geographical challenges, then up to 50 of the 75 individual consultation hours can be obtained by phone/online;
  • Complete two preliminary papers;
  • Participate in a CST Candidate interview with three CST-T members of an STA appointed Advisory Committee;
  • Write up a Final Case Report of a completed sandplay case and present it to two national and one international Case Readers on advice of the candidate’s Advisor; and
  • Receive approval of certified membership by the readers of the case study.

Certified Sandplay Therapist – Teacher

  • Identify an STA (CST-T) Teaching Member of at least two years standing, to act as teaching consultant for the CST-T candidate;
  • Complete a minimum of two years of experience conducting full sandplay processes after ISST certification;
  • Attend an ISST congress, or national conference with international teaching members present and present a paper; or attend an ISST conference/STA national conference that includes international teaching members and publish an article in a sandplay or other journal;
  • Prepare and present at least one additional clinical case in addition to the individual’s final case for ISST membership. This material may be presented at an STA or ISST conference, and/or used in co-teaching with a teaching member. When co-teaching, written feedback from the teaching member and students on at least two occasions is recommended;
  • Co-teach with a Teaching Member, preferably with two different teaching members. This teaching should include not only clinical presentation, but also coaching of trainees for STA/ISST requirements (e.g., preparing and writing a case for STA/ISST membership, writing a symbol paper and other requirements for STA/ISST membership). At least one of the co-teaching sessions needs to be at an introductory/fundamental level of Sandplay therapy; and
  • Co-facilitate two sandplay consultation groups on two occasions with one or more ISST/STA Teaching Members.

ISST Requirements ISST Requirements (173 KB)